https://allthingslinguistic.com/post/803027727244558336

allthingslinguistic:

This is my Jam

1 book from my shelves thematically paired with each day’s jam from the Bonne Maman jamvent calendar.

Day 1

Maple blueberry, a classic Canadian flavour combo (featuring the France French name “myrtille” instead of the Canadian French “bluet” for the fruit) paired with Linguaphile: A life of language love by Julie Sedivy, about the author’s childhood in Montreal and subsequent psycholinguistics research into language and the mind.

Day 2

Fig cardamom paired with Talking Hands, in which journalist Margalit Fox goes along with linguists documenting Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language and writes up a history of sign language linguistic research (and eats a few figs and dates) along the way.

Day 3

I had to look up two words from the name of this jam, both of which turned out to be familiar foods viewed differently (Quetsches et Poires à la Badiane: prune plum and pear with anise), so I’ve paired it with Hellspark, Janet Kagen’s sf book of translation and cultural miscommunication, which several @lingthusiasm listeners told us to read and they were EXTREMELY RIGHT.

Day 4

Cerise and violette are both foods that double as colour terms, so today is Kory Stamper’s True Color, about the history of writing colour definitions in black and white dictionaries. This is my advance copy but it’s coming out next year and I highly recommend it!

Day 5

Apple cinnamon caramel, with Babel by RF Kuang: an initial rush of sweetness, a lingering aftertaste that’s far more complex. A book about the tension of translation as powerful magic

Day 6

Lavender and apricot are foods that underwent long and meandering journeys through the ancient world to get to us today, so I’m pairing them with The Odyssey (translation by Emily Wilson)

Day 7

Coffee caramel spread paired with The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin (whose geology-based swear word system I loved linguistically) for their extensive histories of systemic exploitation

Day 8

Lemon verbena white nectarine and peach with The Language Lover’s Puzzle book by Alex Bellos. This wordlist feels like the intro to a word problem, and this book contains language puzzles in profusion, plus solutions if you get stuck & context notes on the languages!

Day 9

Vanilla caramel, a classic flavour, with the oldest pop linguistics book I own, a copy of Language Made Plain by Anthony Burgess (yes, the Clockwork Orange guy also wrote an intro to linguistics: the penciled flyleaf reminds me I bought it used for 50¢, in high school)

Day 10

Blueberry, lychee, rose jam paired with To Shape A Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose. An Indigenous girl learns to work with a dragon in an alt history of American colonization (with really interesting linguistic elements) plus a jam featuring fruits from both places

Day 11

Pineapple, rum, and vanilla gives me old and golden vibes that I’m pairing with Bea Wolf: Zach Weinersmith’s retelling of Beowulf as a kids fable in full Anglo Saxon meter. It’s glorious.

Day 12

Raspberry redcurrant jelly with Babel: Around the world in twenty languages by Gaston Dorren. Redcurrant makes me think of Europe, so I’ve paired it with this Dutch writer’s window into the twenty most spoken languages of the world.

Day 13

Did you know that a word for honey but not for bees has been reconstructed for Proto-Indo-European, leading to theories that they traded for honey? Honey apricot with Proto: How one ancient language went global by Laura Spinney

Day 14

When I visited Australia a few years ago it was mango season, so I’ve paired this ginger mango jam with Gesture: A Slim Guide by Lauren Gawne, who’s my cohost on @lingthusiasm and the reason I was there!

Day 15

Orange guava lime jam with Language City by Ross Perlin. (I promise the real cover is more eye-catching than my advance copy!) Stories of the 700 languages actively spoken in New York City, by the same processes of human movement that let me eat guava today in snowy Montreal

https://allthingslinguistic.com/post/803027727244558336